The Era Before the Avatar
by ReidsFanGirl18
Summary: Before Aang ran away from the Air Temple, he disappeared once before. Old friends, new enemies, and ancient secrets await him in a time long ago, in the Era Before the Avatar.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue: A Mage's Dream

_"In the era before the Avatar, we bent not the elements, but the energy within ourselves." – The Lion Turtle_

Renn woke in a cold sweat, breathing hard, her heart hammering. Over the storm, she could hardly hear Torak and Finn-Kedinn breathing as they lay asleep beside her. Something or someone was out there in the stormy darkness, she could feel it. Just outside their dwelling, the wind howled like a pack of ravenous wolves, thunder roared, and lightning pierced the darkness as it danced across the sky. She shivered, on the backs of her wrists her lighting bolt tattoos were glowing a little. A sign that her dream wasn't a normal one, but the kind that mages have, the kind that means something. She shut her eyes, and freed her long, red hair from where the humidity had plastered it to her neck and the back of her deerskin dress. Unable to go back to sleep, she got up and decided to oil her bow so she'd be ready to go hunting at dawn if the storm let up. It would serve that purpose but really Renn just needed the feeling of doing something, anything useful. In her dream she'd seen an old friend from an unknown clan who lived far away. Her uncle had fostered him for nearly two years when they were young. Oh how she missed him…

_Maybe that's it! Maybe he's out there and trying to find his way back!_ She thought to herself. But she didn't really believe it, no matter how much she wanted to. Reason told her that he was far away and would never return. She had to accept that. Wherever he was, she hoped that he was home now, home and back with his own clan, where he belonged. She touched her hand to the worn strip of raven feathers on her shoulder, and looked over at her uncle, and Torak. They were her family, along with the rest of the clan, this was where she belonged, why couldn't she just be satisfied with that? Her large black eyes peered around the sides of the shaky wooden door. It had to be tied shut in whether like this and it rattled noisily. But the question was, if she really was, only sensing him getting closer to the camp, because she wanted it to be true, then why was she still being pulled out into the forest? Who else could her clan soul be, being drawn to? It didn't make sense. At the edge of the shelter, just beside the doorway, Wolf peered at her with his knowing amber eyes. Although she didn't instinctively speak wolf like Torak did, after all this time, she and Wolf could usually do a good job of making themselves understood to one another.

_"__Pack-sister, truth is not what you think, it's what you know." _He seemed to say.

But what was that supposed to mean? That it didn't matter if it didn't make sense for him to be out there somewhere, if he was and something in her knew it, then it was true? She sighed and waited for dawn to come.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1: The Hidden Village

Meanwhile a boy named Aang and his friends, Katara and Sokka were walking along the edge of the forest counting on the trees to keep them dry (which wasn't working) and looking for a proper shelter in which to spend the night. The trees were so thick they couldn't even see the moon, but it simply wasn't enough.

"You have no idea where you're going, do you?" Sokka asked, sounding more than a little annoyed. He had been ever since Aang explained that it was probably best not to bring Appa where they were going and that therefore they would have to travel on foot.

In all honesty, Aang couldn't really blame him. They should have reached their destination by now, yet here they were, lost, tired, wet, and cold. They still didn't know where they were going, it was so dark that it was hard to see even a few steps in front of them, even with Aang using firebending to light their way, and the storm showed absolutely no sign of letting up.

Aang shot him an annoyed glance. "Sorry guys, but I was sure that it was somewhere around here. I just" he paused. "don't remember where it is exactly."

"Maybe these people were destroyed. It doesn't look like there was much Fire Nation activity around here but you never know. I mean come on, the Fire Nation managed to get to the Air Temples, which are very hard to get to without a flying bison, and Ba Sing Se, the 'Impenetrable City', so what makes you think they couldn't have gotten to this place?" Sokka suggested only to have Katara punch him in the arm.

"Can't you at least try to be sensitive? That wasn't very nice Sokka." She asked accusingly. Then they continued on through the dark.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2: Renn's Secret

Renn continued to tend to her bow and listen to it pour outside while she waited for morning.

Suddenly Torak began to stir…

"Renn? Is that you?" Torak asked sleepily, stretching out like a wolf would before rising to his feet.

"Yeah, it's me Torak. Sorry, I-I didn't mean to wake you." She stammered, being careful not to meet his gray eyes.

"It's alright, you didn't, in weather like this that stupid door is enough…" he told her. Then he noticed the look on her face. "Is there something bothering you?" He asked.

Renn just shook her head and glared at him. Annoyed. Inside though, she wanted to scream "YES!" and it must have showed. Renn was still shaken from the dream and she was sure she couldn't hide it completely. At least not from someone who knew her as well as Torak did. She hoped that whatever she did to give it away and that Torak didn't notice but of course he did. Torak was a hunter; he noticed almost everything that was going on around him.

Torak hated when Renn didn't answer him. There were few things they kept from each other, very few. So why wouldn't she just explain to him what was bothering her? Renn was Torak's only real friend besides a wolf, but sometimes she made very little sense.

_Renn doesn't keep anything from you._ he thought to himself. _She's just waiting for the right time._ _You'll understand when she wants you to understand._ Actually, not explaining at first wasn't unusual for Renn; it was her way of keeping secrets and being open with him at the same time.

Still, Torak's instincts told him that this time Ren was holding back something she shouldn't. So he decided to talk to Saeunn about it. The Raven Mage had known Renn even before she became her apprentice and knew Renn better than anyone else, (not counting Finn-Kedinn.) Maybe she could shed some light on this mystery...

When Torak arrived at Saeunn's shelter, he found the old woman in a trance. He wondered if this was really worth disturbing her and turned to leave. But before he had the chance she regained her normal state and peered at him with a knowing look through the one perfectly round black eye.

"Oh yes, come right in. I wasn't concentrating or anything." She said and saw that Torak hadn't read the joke in her voice. "Oh I'm just messing with you Torak; come in. come. Now, what have you come to ask me?"

"Ever since the storm last night I've felt like Renn's hiding something from me but I can't figure out what." He stammered.

"Oh, I think I can explain Torak. When Renn was young, a boy from beyond the forest about her own age wandered close to the village. The boy hit his head on something and lost all memory of where he'd come from. When Finn-Kedinn found him the only thing he did remember was his name. We couldn't take him home because, since he lacked clan tattoos, we had absolutely no idea which clan he had come from. Finn-Kedinn claimed him as his foster son right after that, much as he has done with you. His memory returned a year and a half later. At that point he returned home and none of us ever saw him again. But the night of the storm, Renn dreamed a mage's dream and felt his presence. She thinks he's trying to return to us. So do I, it's been in the bones for days. She didn't want to tell you because she didn't know how you'd react."

As soon as the Raven Mage had finished explaining Torak turned and left without a word of reply. He knew what would come next if he discussed this with her any further, she's badger and patronize him until he came to the right conclusion, well, he needed to work that out for himself rather than have it sucked out of him almost by force. He didn't know how he knew that just that he did.


End file.
